Related Books
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| Behind the Scenes with Bruce Springsteen: The Parody Collection by Rich Kortz (Farmington Hills, MI: Push/Pull Press, 2000, paperback, 251 pp.) (About 30 small black and white photos, most of which illustrate the settings or topics of the stories.) If you loved Mad Magazine and you are a fan who knows all the words to the songs, you’ll love this parody. This book is a history of Bruce and the band that reworks what is known and fills in the gaps of what is not known about them. The book begins with a argument between kid Bruce and his mom over buying him a guitar and ends after the year 2000 reunion tour. The character of Bruce is played by the young man in the bootlegs who stuttered and paused onstage as he told long stories between songs. Pats, or Reds, is the long-suffering everywife, Landau is big daddy, and the band members are variations, some quite nasty, of the pals of Peter Pan. As the band members trade insults the tension grows, often exploding when you recognize a line from one of the songs or recall the original story, say of spray painting a billboard as Bruce makes the gang go out to save the gigantic face of Tillie by cutting it out of the wall and storing it in Bruce’s bedroom. If not taken seriously, this is a book that will greatly entertain. For updates to the book, check out the Luckytown listserve. Rich has posted these parodies there for several years.
Be My Baby: How I Survived Mascara, Miniskirts, and Madness or My Life as a Fabulous Ronette by Ronnie Spector with Vince Waldron, foreward by Cher, intro by Billy Joel (Harmony Books, 1990, hardback, with index, 318 pp.) Like Cher and Tina Turner, Veronica Bennett (later Ronnie Spector) was a singer in the golden age of rock and roll who married a music partner. In this case it was Phil Spector, the producer who created the famed "wall of sound" effect on his records. After her divorce from Phil, Ronnie was the girlfriend of Steve Van Zandt and sang onstage with Bruce and the band at the Agora in Cleveland February 17, 1977 when they played three of her hit songs. In this autobiography Ronnie talks briefly about Steve and Bruce as well as her experiences recording with the E Street Band and touring with Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes.
The Big Beat: Conversations with Rock's Great Drummers by Max Weinberg with Robert Santelli (1984, Chicago: Contemporary Books Inc., 197 pp.)
Guide to the New Jersey Shore by Robert Santelli (Globe Pequot Press, 1998, 240 pp.)
The Meadowlands by Robert Sullivan (1998, New York City: Doubleday--Anchor Books, 220pp)
Seascapes: A Collection of Photographs of the Jersey Shore by Joseph Paduano (1983, NY: Morgan Press Inc., pp. 39)
Sun City by Artists United Against Apartheid: The Struggle for Freedom in South Africa, including preface by Little Steven and "The Making of the Record" by Dave Marsh (1985, copyrighted by The Solidarity Foundation, produced NY: Cloverdale Press, 121 pp.) [includes color photo of Bruce with U2's Bono]
We Are The World: The Photos, Music, and Inside Story of One of the Most Historic Events in American Popular Music by David Breskin with contributions from Cheryl McCall and Robert Hilburn (1985, copyrighted by USA for Africa, published NY: Putnam Publishing Group's Perigee Books, 64 pp.) [only the cover photo is in color].
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| Heavyweights | U.S.A. Bandwagon | Reference | Author List | Books by Bruce | Influences | Sources |